"You're Not a Good Fit for the Room"

[senorblues]

I've been grousing about this in other threads, but I'd like to look at it another way. How many of the rooms you play hire acts who are similar in style? How many hire musicians that seem to have very little in common. Do your rooms have the same "regulars" every night, or do different people show up on different nights depending on the music (or other activity - karaoke, game night, dance night, etc.) Seems to me, you can attract a variety of people to different kinds of music if everyone knows the schedule, ie, Bill's jazz trio every first Friday, Don the singer-songwriter every third Thursday, etc. I've seen it done, but not very often. A new owner up here was very receptive to the idea of a weekly piano night where four of us would be in the rotation, but I think he's having problems getting a commitment from all four of the qualified players.

[daddymack]

eclecticism is a double edged sword, and much would depend on the local market.

We are seeing clubs/bars dying here in LA left and right, and the rooms that still have music don't have decent stages [or lights or PA] for a full band, and so they try to get solos/duos/trios....but genre wise they generally are clueless.

There are still a few that call themselves 'jazz' clubs, but what they accept as 'jazz' leaves the purists scratching their heads, and the 'new-agers' disappointed.

Sadly what I see locally mainly is guys [like me] who have bands that work less often so they are picking up these 'micro' gigs in rooms with no real identity, and are expected to bring in bodies. There are some that 'specialize...one for instance is a 'Brit' themed [and owned] pub, and so entertainers are expected to lean heavily on 60s brit pop, Bowie, etc. Unfortunately, the room is really a dart pub, and no one cares about the music, and the applause goes to the dart players. I was one gig and out.

[pogo97]

In my town the places that offer entertainment are pretty much random about who they hire. Aside from darts night, or trivial pursuit night, or open mic night, and my jazz-age jazz evening, there really is no continuity from one week to the next. Friday and Saturday are "Live Music" on the sign outside with, generally, no indication of who it is or what kind of music they're playing. I've been doing my Wednesdays from 5 to 8 for a year now and the owner has done *nothing* to promote it -- it's all on my plate and a couple of the staff who make sure there's something on the sandwich board. I bring in return guests every week, but pretty much all of them stumbled onto me by accident the first time.

 

I believe that most bar owners think there are two kinds of music: music that sells beer and music that doesn't sell beer. A handful of musicians can draw a crowd -- they went to high school here and draw their cohort, or they are very good entertainers with a regional reputation. Sometimes we get a touring musician who needs a gig on the way from Toronto to Montreal or Ottawa and some are great, but there's no promotion and they play to empty seats. And me and two couples who came in from the hotel across the street.

[pogo97]

ie' date=' Bill's jazz trio every first Friday, Don the singer-songwriter every third Thursday, etc. I've seen it done, but not very often. A new owner up here was very receptive to the idea of a weekly piano night where four of us would be in the rotation, but I think he's having problems getting a commitment from all four of the qualified players. [/quote']

 

There's a place in Kingston that has something like that: it's a hip Italian kind of place in a heritage building. Upscale. I've only been a couple of times, but the last time the joint was packed. There was a trio of drums bass and sax that played post-bop jazz. They were very good and were enjoying themselves. There was lots of talking and hard to hear them, but they were very much a part of the vibe. The place has a rotation of jazz acts 6 to 9. I don't think it's tied to the month but to how many acts they have in the rotation, but Tuesdays are always jazz, which is probably distinction enough.

[Notes_Norton]

There are plenty of places around here that used to hire bands 6 nights a week. I saw the end of that in the late 20th century and went to the Yacht Club, Country Club, Retirement Development end of the business. There is a big market for that in Florida.

 

There are no more 6 night venues for a band in this area anymore. You get clubs with a live music night, a karaoke night, an open mic night, a "Live DJ" night, and whatever. There are other clubs that bands play a night a week for drinks and tips. It seems as if the local clubs feel that a few nights of free entertainment with a paid for band once a week is better for their bottom line, and I guess it just might be.

 

We've been doing a lunch-time gig, one day a week, for 10 years. It's a great gig, and we pull the biggest crowd of the week there on a Tuesday. It's outdoors, at a marina, and once the rainy season starts, we'll take a couple of months off and return next year. As long as we pull bigger crowds than the weekends on a Tuesday we have job security.

 

This also leaves us weekends free for the private venues.

 

We've turned down gigs when we aren't a good fit for the venue, and we let them know why. "Thanks for thinking of us, but I don't think we are going to make your audience happy" and then I explain why. For example, if someone wanted a country music night I'll tell them I can do some country songs, not enough for an entire night, and not the current Top40 country hit songs. If they say it's only a theme and they want a few country songs but a variety or anything else we can do most of the night, it's OK. We are doing a luau like that tonight. 4 Hawaiian songs, some Caribbean songs, and the rest Baby Boomer rock. We've done that luau about 10 years straight now at the same beachfront condominium high-rise.

 

Many years ago, I was in a disco band (yes it was that long ago) and an agent booked us over Christmas and New Years in the panhandle of Florida. Down in the peninsula, the panhandle is known as L-A (Lower Alabama). The tastes in music then were country with nothing more rock/pop than Allman Brothers.

 

Needless to say, they hated us. It was like the Blues Brothers Movie without the "Ghost Riders" song saving the day. The agent was stuck to fill the room, and we were her solution. I never booked with that agent again.

 

There is not much worse than being not a good fit for the audience you have in front of you.

 

Insights and incites by Notes

[pogo97]

Which four Hawaiian songs?

[senorblues]

A brewery not far from here promotes Live Music Every Friday, but they rarely tell you who it is. That tells me that they think the acts are interchangeable and that their regulars should know what to expect. Another brewery that booked me put a notice in the paper that described my music. I know that several people that showed up were there because they were curious about my music and may well have never been there before. The first brewery won't work for me. The second has, at least so far.

 

If your music style is an integral part of the dominant live scene stylistically, my question probably doesn't compute, but if you're a new arrival and you're coming from a very different environment, then I'm wondering how you initially got a venue to be receptive to trying out something different.

 

Guys talk about finding themselves bombing out of a room that shouldn't have booked them, but where exactly was the disconnect? Repertoire? Presentation/appearance/age? Instrumentation? Harmonic/rhythmic interpretation? We talk about this as though it was obvious. I don't think it is. If it sounds like I'm trying to come up with a formula . . . Yeah, I am.

[Shaster]

As I've probably said before, many hotels in my area want the exact same thing - guys just over thirty, dressed upscale hip, who do the same songs. Tough on the staff, but the hotels want consistency. Some hotels don't mind deviating a bit. I play a place p where I'm the Blues, Soul, Reggae guy, usually on the same night, then another artist will be the request guy, yet another will be the pop instrumental fellow and so on. One place I'm playing tonight, I'm the party guy, so I have to trot out all this Classic Soul, and "classy" party stuff, and I usually get the late shift. Those types of places are my favourites. When I play the joints that are quality control lounges, I usually loose the gig after a couple of months because the GM walks in and realizes, to their horror, that I'm not thirty-two. I'd rather go where I'm appreciated.

 

As to different nights and bands, I'm playing a gig on April 28th that is at a club where they have Jazz, Blues and even Metal and Punk. They have the best (FWIW) Blues and Jazz players in the city, and they still have to promote their buns off, and it's free cover on Blues and Jazz days! http://www.patspub.ca/events/ If you can promote, promote promote, then it's possible to create a gig, but it ain't easy. I know a fella that has managed to get two, or three regular days a week, but I think he's "on the phone" more than he sleeps.

[pogo97]

Guys talk about finding themselves bombing out of a room that shouldn't have booked them' date=' but where exactly was the disconnect? Repertoire? Presentation/appearance/age? Instrumentation? Harmonic/rhythmic interpretation? We talk about this as though it was obvious. I don't think it is. If it sounds like I'm trying to come up with a formula . . . Yeah, I am.[/quote']

 

They study stuff like this in universities. And they likely come to no conclusions either.

 

People Who Are Not Musicians (PWANMs) can be tribal about what music they will tolerate. "I hate country." or "Give me metal or give me death." You know. Common repertory is part of how they define themselves and separate friend from foe. But it also has to do with the singer's style and, yes, age. I remember mocking Paul Anka for covering "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Just because. (Okay, I still do.) We are also herd animals and will give something a lot more creds if we perceive that people who are like us in other ways us enjoy it. PWANMs want to feel included -- which has also to do with how you, personally, connect to the audience.

 

Accidentally went to see a young (25) woman playing last night. She was doing songs I don't know (I'm fine with that, actually) singing loud and just walloping her acoustic guitar -- I'm coming to think of it as the "angry lesbian slam" stye. Not my thing and I regretted the money spent, a bit. But the place was packed with her extended family and friends. A cohort.

 

Some performers have great instincts about who they're playing for and how to connect with them. I don't, so I play as well as I can and hope they get it. Within my repertory, I'll try to keep the pace interesting and if there are kids there I include simpler, more vivid, songs. And for couples, I'll play romantic stuff. Etc. I also understand that PWANMs, like musicians, will prefer something they've heard before.

 

Because I play pre-1950 material, I try to include the occasional song that I'm pretty sure they'll have heard in a movie or as a cover. Can't trust them to have heard them on cartoons anymore. And I fawn over people who come multiple times -- they become familiar with more of my songs and, therefore, get more out of them on their second and third visits. I do think that I have an advantage with millennials in that my material is so old that it no longer smells like mom and dad or even gran and gramps. It's kind of a foreign planet to them and sometimes they're interested in it as something genuinely new to them.

[senorblues]

I'd like to think that I have a few advantages. I play familiar songs from the 20s, 40s, 60s, even a couple from the 80s, but my roots, the 60s, are considered by many to be the pinnacle of popular music. They dominate the Rolling Stones All-time greatest hits list. The better material continues to get covered by artists of various genres. Another advantage is that what I'm playing - boomer music - appeals to people with disposable incomes. It's been said that they don't go out to listen to music much, but they certainly go to restaurants, so it should be as simple as letting them know that there's someone out there who can play their music that they can enjoy over dessert and another drink. Simple, right? Someone tell the manager and/or the kid s/he hired to book the music!

[pogo97]

"the manager and/or the kid s/he hired to book the music" is your first customer.

 

unfortunately

[Notes_Norton]

Tiny Bubbles, Hawaiian War Chant, Hawaiian Wedding Song and Blue Hawaii - noting that they may not be authentic Hawaiian songs, but this is what our public perceives as Hawaiian and was made popular stateside years ago by Arthur Godfrey and later Don Ho.

[Notes_Norton]

When Leilani and I started out playing the "Senior Circuit" (for back of a better term) we thought we could play Standards and sneak in some jazz. Back in the 1980s the Senior Citizen Yacht Clubs, Country Clubs, Condominiums, and Cruise Ships were predominantly people from the Big-Band Swing Era.

 

There were plenty of ballrooom dancers so we took free lessons from Arthur Murray in exchange for playing once a month at their studio. The best way to know what the groove of a dance should be is by learning at least the basic dance steps.

 

We went out in public, did "The season" here in Florida and 3 long summers on cruise ships and collected requests. Whatever got requested most frequently got learned the quickest. Right away we started also getting requests for old Rock n Roll songs along with the swing-era tunes.

 

We've been doing that market for 30 years now, bought a house, paid off the mortgage, bought and sold a sailboat, and we still see the same grey haired people out there, but they no longer request "Stardust" or "Satin Doll", instead they want Elvis, Beatles, Eric Clapton, and a few relatively contemporary songs that crossed over into the adult market like "Blurred Lines" and "Uptown Funk". The jazz standards don't get requested much but we'll pull one out if we think it will still work OK.

 

We still save requests. We have over 550 songs in many genres of pop music from the Big Band songs we hardly play anymore to rock (from Elvis to the turn of the century), to Caribbean, to Latin American, to Country, to Blues, and so on. When we get to a new venue, the first thing we do is look at the people to size them up and guess their music tastes. Shoes, clothes, hair styles, accessories, and so on. With experience you can tell a lot about them by how they dress and carry themselves. Then we give them our best shot, usually with very popular songs to "make friends" before we start with lesser known tunes. First impressions mean a lot.

 

Some one told me a long time ago, "You can play for yourself, you can play for other musicians, or you can play for the general public. If you are good enough, you will get the audience you asked for."

 

I've chosen the general public, and they haven't let me down.

 

I've also heard, "If you survive on the bandstand long enough, the people will tell you what they want to hear."

 

I want to play what they want to hear, and after I've made good friends I know I can sneak in some music for myself as long as it fits the genre of the club I find myself in.

 

Years ago when we were on the cruise ships, every band did one afternoon set one day a week. There was a pianist/vocalist in the piano bar. She played fantastic jazz piano and sang great. She had the musicians on the ship drooling on the piano. But the musicians were the only one there on her afternoon set, and her tip jar was empty. She lasted 3 weeks and didn't get her contract renewed.

 

A couple of pianists later was a guy who could play piano in only 2 keys. If he didn't know a chord he'd take his hands off the piano and sing through it, if he couldn't sing it all in the key he could play it, he would change the melody of that part. BUT he was a fantastic entertainer, knew popular songs, and had an uncanny memory of the patrons - remember this was a one week cruise and the passengers changed every week - but he knew what song they requested, remembered what city they hailed from, and other things they told him. Most musicians didn't come to his afternoon set. We did, learned a lot from him, and the bar was packed and his tip jar overflowing.

 

Somewhere between those two extremes is were we put ourselves.

 

In my entire career there have been few rooms that didn't work for me. What was the disconnect? Material. We dress the part, are easy to get along with, eager to please the audience, but we play what we play, and if we are booked in a club that needs what we don't have, it won't work.

 

In the early 1970s I was in a rock band. Someone was stuck for a new years eve band for his condo and hired us. We tried to talk him out of it, but he offered more and more money. So we accepted, and shouldn't have. They hated us. We're playing "Low Spark Of Hi Heeled Boys" and they are wanting "Moonglow". There was nothing we could do. It was my very first lesson.

 

Notes

[senorblues]

My focus currently is how to get gigs. Keeping them is another concern, although sometimes they can work at cross purposes. I've made several compilation audio recordings indicating that I'm comfortable in several genres, but I imagine that a rejection could be based on the manager's fear that I would play the wrong style for his room. Of course they never say that, so you can't reassure them.

 

Like so many other things, it was easier when you were younger.

[pogo97]

Like so many other things' date=' it was easier when you were younger.[/quote']

 

When I was younger -- 20s 30s -- I mostly wished the geezers would get out of the way.

[senorblues]

The geezers had bands back in the day that played for their cohort. The father of a friend of mine in elementary school - mid 50s - played solo piano full time at a restaurant. Their music required some musical training whereas a lot of our music - well, most of it doesn't. And yet it has far more staying power than many of us expected. Most of the canned music in your local grocery store is ours.

 

Where was I going with this? . . . . Oh yes. We have our cohort; they have theirs. In my very small market of scattered 2,000 pop. towns, I don't think the variety of supply is sufficient to allow venues to be that precise in matching entertainment to their target audience.

[steve mac]

Near 100% of performers here sing (some well some not) to BTs, I think of it as karaoke with only one person getting a turn. Therefore any performance that offers something different is guaranteed to be popular. I was on holiday over the weekend and was contacted twice to ask if I could step in when a BT artist cancelled at a venue. What my set list consists of is secondary to the fact that I produce actual live music and gives me freedom to play pretty much what I want. Having said that my taste and my audience tends to happily coincide in the main.

[senorblues]

The owner who was most complimentary about my music said he'd call in March to book me on a regular basis. Clicked on his FB page this morning and discovered that as of last night, he closed permanently.

 

If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all . . .

[pogo97]

[video=youtube;2Py37G9qsfY]

[senorblues]

That's the signature version. This was my introduction to the song and to blues in general.

[daddymack]

Aloha Oy Vey....

[daddymack]

ultimately they did...as we will...and so it goes.

[pogo97]

I was very lucky. Our local library had a great selection of LPs. I believe they subscribed to "Stereo Review" and bought everything that got "recording of special merit" designation or better. My introduction to the blues was a Lightnin' Hopkins album they had called "Lightnin'" I think. Blew my mind.

[senorblues]

The Montgomery County, MD library system is quite impressive. One local branch in particular has a very good CD collection. Up here, not so much.

[pogo97]

Know them all (not to play). My dad had a Don Ho record. He'd play it sometimes while we had Sunday supper.